//------------------------------//
// 24 To go back, or not to go back 
// Story: A new breed of evil 
// by Rarity Belle 
//------------------------------//

	While the night faded away into the light of the day, nopony was truly sure whether or not it was actually safe outside on the streets. With the events of the moon still fresh in their feeble mind would all of the ponies not even dare to actually come out of their houses until one thing revealed itself. One thing that caused all of the ponies to look up and sigh in utmost relief.

        That very thing was nothing else then the golden orb that showed itself during the wonderful days. An object that was the very sun was needed to make the ponies feel safe again. Slowly did the streets began to crowd themselves again with the lives of many and all who were going towards their usual meetings and appointments. Something that didn't seem to be minded by all too many ponies.

        With the skies that became more and more blue of coloring and not a single cloud that could be seen within them all, everything looked like it found its inner peace again after the events. But if that was only the truth on the matter. For nothing was what it seemed to be and even on that fantastic looking day, the horrors of White Tails were still more than ever present.

        Yet in the Golden Oak library was Spike himself being awoken by the rays of light and groaned deep in his sleep. He didn't wanted to get out before all his systems kicked back into gear. That day was going to be the one that would be going down into the history books of perhaps not just himself, but a certain other pony as well.

        The eyes opened themselves almost by force and the blankets were kicked from his body. There were deeds to be done, adventures to be had, words to be exchanged. He had to pay a certain family a visit. The baby dragon wanted to figure more about the facts of what happened with his beloved crush. And luckily for the dragon, he knew exactly where he could get those answers from.

        Before he would be setting a foot in the outside world, Spike would have everything packed for the journey in a backpack. One that was kept a little bit hidden from any visitors that might be coming in. Not that he was expecting any to begin with. He never knew just when Twilight would have returned to the library, thus discovered his little plan to actually sneak out of the house and hit the road to both adventure and disbelief.

        It was a deep-rooted fear that always got carried in the back of his head. A fear that caused him to pack almost without sound. Only the thing that were absolutely necessary for the trip he was about to make would be packed. Yet his eyes constantly glanced over to the hallway, awaiting her.

        When the time was finally there, Spike closed the backpack. A smile was made by his lips and the young dragon turned over to one of the window to look out of it and see the world outside in the glory that it is. A glory which was going further than the eye could reach and a deep inhale was being taken by him to gather the courage for the deeds to be done. The plan was there, all that was left to be discovered, was his companion.


~~~~

                     
Speaking about that, about an hour later was the dragon wandering over the road that led to the parental house of Rarity. With a bit of luck would all three of the family members still be there. And perhaps just one of them might have been able to help him with the problems he had.

        He calmly walked over to the front door and gave a couple knocks upon it before starting to wait. “Magnum dear, could you get it please? I got my hooves full here,” the voice of a mare all of the sudden rang in his ears. A voice that originated from inside the house. The thought that at least two of the three were home was something that was a massive relief for Spike.

        The dragon turned himself around and looked at the rising sun with a smile. His scales almost seemed to be reflecting the light off of them. The rays themselves caused these little tingles upon them. A little something that just made him smile so much. The day seemed to be perfect, what could possibly be going wrong with it?

        When the door was finally opened for Spike, he saw a white coated stallion with a brown mustache looking down to him. In the first few seconds the eyes looked stern down upon the baby dragon, but then they turned a little bit more friendly and even gave him a smile. “Spike, what a surprise is this, can we help you with something?” he asked of him.

        “If, I may come in please, I want to discuss a couple of things with, all of you,” replied Spike to the stallion in a polite manner. Magnum listened to the words and gave him a nod before he was allowed inside of the house. The dragon hadn't been there many times but every time he was there, there was always something new to be discovered. Much like Rarity did her entire family held a little secret or two.

        Yet it didn't seem to be his place to actually question any of it, which he luckily didn't. The dragon was guided over to the living room where he sat down upon the couch and simply waited for the rest of the family to come. “Sweetie Belle? Could you come downstairs, please?” the voice of the mare rang again through the dragons ears. “We have a visitor.”

        “Coming mom!” Sweetie yelled from out of her room. Before anypony knew it, she had galloped down the stairs. The filly came straight into the living room where she came almost to a screeching hold. Out of every pony she had expected to be there, it was the dragon. “Oh, hey Spike.”

        “Hey Sweetie,” returned Spike with a small smile upon his face. The filly took place next to him. Not much after that, both Magnum and his wife entered the living room and sat down as well. The question of drinks was being asked, but none of them actually wanted to have any.


~~~~

         
        “So Spike, what is it that you wanted to discuss with us?” Pearl asked before she calmly looked over to the dragon. Only to begin to wait for his answer. All of the sudden were all of the eyes aimed straight at him. All of the family members looked over to him with the questioning but also the wondering gaze of what he would be saying.

        “Well,” the dragon started before a deep inhale was being made, “I, want to know more about Rarity. Anything, that could help me to find her again. Even though, I did let her go a long time already, I still need that...closure. If, if you understand what I mean.”

        Both Magnum and Pearl nodded to his words. They understood each of them with the greatest of both care and respect for him. Though there was only one little problem and it was something addressed by Magnum. “Spike, if we had any leads upon her whereabouts or anything else to begin with, we would have gone out there and look for our little filly ourselves. Who knows what we could have found if we did that. Yet, there’s nothing that could even be guiding us over to a place. We got, nothing. Even we, are left in the dark, Spike. All we could do, was to accept the facts as they were presented to us and roll with that,” the stallion said to him with some difficulty.

        All of the sudden was it Pearl who took over the words after Magnum released a deep sigh when he finished his. “It wasn't something we wanted to do, honestly. But it was the best that we could do. As horrifying as it sounds we, we couldn't do any better really. Our little filly, still out there... cold, alone, and yet here we are.”

        The more she spoke her words, the harder it became for the mare to keep her tears together. Only when Magnum wrapped a leg around both of her shoulders and pulled her in closer, the tears began to stream over her cheeks. “I, I think it might be best of you leave us be Spike. Sweetie dear, could you let Spike out?”

        They both understood the message almost immediately. They stood up to walk back to the hallway. Magnum began to comfort his wife and slowly lost the track of the real world. Something that would be working in the massive advantage of the filly and the baby dragon. For as they stood in the hallway, Sweetie made a couple signals with her hooves for him to come closer with his ears.

        Uncertain of the things that she actually wanted, Spike did just what was asked of him and lowered her ears towards her. “White Tails woods, something just keeps chewing on me, that Rarity is there for some reason. I need to know it for certain, Spike,” whispered Sweetie Belle to him with a worried expression. In response did the dragon shook his head a couple of times. He couldn't believe it that there was actually a lead to her. Yet on the other side, stood the massive forest of madness.

        “Library, this afternoon, bring you camping gear. I need to know the details of this as well. Two pairs of eyes work better than one, right?.” Those words had perhaps a little bit of a different reaction upon sweetie than that he had originally hoped. For she suddenly saw even whiter than normally.

        “Y-You’re kidding right?! G-Going back there, a-after Scoots and A-Apple Bloom rushed out? I, I’m not so sure about it, Spike,” Sweetie whispered with a scared tone. Shortly after it had her worried eyes looked over to the direction of the living room. She had heard the sniffing of her mother and the comforting of her father. Perhaps she could be giving them all a bit of closure if she actually went there. It would be a massive undertaking of nothing but courage to go back there.

        “Think it through, Sweetie, I’ll be waiting for you until three, after that I’m off to the woods,” the baby dragon whispered to her. He then opened the door and let himself out.

        While the door closed itself again, Sweetie Belle lowered herself down on her hunches and sighed deep. “Oh the trouble I’ll always get myself in every single time,” she whispered before her head hung itself low. The thoughts began to rush through her mind. Thoughts about whether or not she would be returning to the place one more time.


~~~~

                     
While Spike was walking down the path again to return to the library, there were the little bits of received information a great help to him in perhaps more than one way. Yet he wasn't unaware of the rumors either, he knew them perhaps better than anypony else. He could have felt it in time that Twilight was getting more and more frightened by the very woods she once loved to study.

        And a scared Twilight Sparkle wasn't something that happened too often. The thoughts continued to grind themselves through his head. He tried to apply every last theory he had on the matter. Something that wasn't all too much to begin with either. His head turned itself up to the skies high above. They still had maintained their natural blue coloring and cloudless expression.

        It was a little something, but a little something that eased his mind more than perhaps anything else on the matter. The weather was calm, which meant that he would have some good travel weather with him. It was the companion he was still worried about. Spike couldn't be certain that he had to watch over her from time to time. Sweetie was a smart little filly by any means and he could only pray upon the fact that she would be going with him.

        After minutes of both thinking and wandering through town had Spike finally arrived at the library once again and he vanished inside to look at his gear again. Now that he knew just where he needed to be looking, everything that wasn't of true need was removed from the backpack. Something that made it lighter than before and he had to admit the fact that it felt a lot more pleasant upon his back.

        With the final check-ups being completed was the wait on to see whether or not Sweetie Belle would have come with him on the trip. To join him in the quest to find out what happened to Rarity, or to get her back from anything that was holding her. The fires of passion were raging within his eyes, the baby dragon wanted to do everything he could to help her. Making him forget the final outcome of everything. One outcome he rather didn’t think about at all.

        His mind to turn itself over into a different state of thinking. A state in which it would plan just such a lot. The gears and pistons inside of it began to turn and twist just so much, that everything he seemed to be doing, was illogical. “So that’s, how Twilight thinks? Never knew that before,” Spike muttered to himself. He took place in a chair with a map of White Tails laid out before him.

        His green rimmed eyes spied all over the thing to find out the biggest vantage points but also made another little realization. The trip would be taking him three days at least. Two days’ worth of travel, while one day was left of the hike. Though if he could be lucky, he could have given himself a day and a half. Only if luck wanted to work with him though. A thing it usually didn't though.

        But for the rest of the time were the plans being made up, the backpack checked time and time again while the hope of Twilight not returning home, became greater and greater. Of course he wanted her to get home at some point or another, but not while he was doing his little trek. Breaking the rules at the finest was the thing that he was busy with whether it was liked or not.

        “Desperate times, ask for desperate measures, would Twilight always say,” Spike mumbled to himself. A deep sigh was released through his nostrils and the eyes closed themselves for a little bit. He had to rethink every single step of the way and prepare himself mentally for the trouble that was still to come. Though there wasn't a force available in the world that could actually prepare him for the dangers that awaited him within the borders of the forest.

        Everything he was planning to do could be dubbed as highly insane and for the most part ponies who said that would be right. But with the events as they went down in history, it was just that little spark of utter insanity that was needed from every possible side, to bring it all to a good end. Or so he thought in his mind. With the minutes having crawled by, the map was folded up and he released a deep sigh through his nostrils once again. “So this, this is going to be it then Rarity. Hold on my dear, for I’m coming for you. To rescue you out of your torments, whatever they may be.”


~~~~

                     
The nightmarish unicorn stood once again upon the balcony of the tower in the domain. She looked over the land as far as her eyes were allowed to. Her posture upon the tower was a sight that most of the nightmare forces had gotten used to by that point. Though inside the mind of the unicorn were the plans being made for something rather unusual and perhaps even unorthodox. With her history in fencing and every last move still known to her, she was thinking about leaving the more peaceful tactics behind her. She deemed it time that the tables would be turned around.

        Nightmare Rarity found that it was time to switch to something a bit more powerful and intimidating to indulge the fear into her test subjects. She needed to have some kind of tool that she could be using, to shut them up without charging up her horn too much. It was an idea born into her own personal madness and something that she seemed to be loving herself. Nightmare Rarity almost exactly knew the thing that she needed in order to pull it off.

        Not much later she could be found standing in the courtyard and had her eyes shut firm. The horn had charged itself up as if it would be hunting for gems. Some of the nightmare forces looked up and around to see whatever they saw was something that they really were seeing. None of them could actually believe it what she was doing. Yet none of them dared to interfere with the events to be taken place. Curiosity was born within all of them.

        Mumbles of words from long forgotten times were whispered by the unicorn herself as she held her eyes firmly shut and the charge of her horn only seemed to be increasing itself in strength. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing. With her magic ready, it was time to execute the plan of attack. The first thing that had to be done was to release the charge. All of the magic would be set free into the world. The ground then began to crack and tear itself open before her hooves, into a near perfect hole.

        It was the content inside of that very hole that was so much more worthy for the unicorn than anything else she had. Out of the hole would she have summoned tons of gems that ranged from simple amethyst to the toughest diamonds. All of it was taken straight out of the ground before the hole closed itself again with her magic. The unicorn began to smirk like a devil. She allowed all of the gems to swirl around her like they were in a vortex of some kind.

        A vortex that was actually used to heat them up to the point of melting, if not magical bending. That was the thing she had to do in order to create her desired thing. She would have needed every last gem to be able to being worked with like it was clay. It took her a minute or two to get all of the gems that she needed that hot.

        The sheer amount of heat that was irradiated by the gems was something that nothing could withstand. Even the nightmare forces that stood around her couldn't be standing too long in the physical realm before the feeling of being scorched came to them. Yet the queen herself seemed to be rather unaffected by any of the things. She even dare to guide the gems over to her head.

        Right on top of her horn had an orb appeared in which each of the gems disappeared into. The forces could only guess just what it was that she was making for herself. Though some could already guess it by the cutting look in her eyes as they opened themselves again.              
        A couple agonizing seconds of silence came from the unicorn, moments in which literally anything could happen before she allowed the orb to just being blown up into a thousand little pieces of her own.

        Then it was seen by the nightmare forces. They saw the very thing that she had been creating for herself. A massive sword came out of the ord. One that had the characteristics of both a katana and a cutlass. It was embedded with precious stones around both the hilt and the hoof guard. A true worth of beauty it appeared to be. Not to mention to sheath that it was placed it. Any of the leftover gems were used to create an oddly patterned sword-sheath. One that was placed upon the hips of the unicorn. With a wicked grin had she looked over to it. The sword would be drawn by her magic. Nightmare Rarity would have made a couple of her signature, lightning quick, moves to a couple imaginative targets before her.

        She still had the muscle, she then had the weapon. All of the sudden had she become three times more dangerous than she already was. Nightmare Rarity had become a true force to be reckoned with. Not only skilled in magic, but also hoof-to-hoof combat. It couldn’t get any worse.


~~~~

                     
When the clock finally hit three in the afternoon, Spike did indeed stood up from his chair and grabbed everything that he thought that he would be needing for the trip. His backpack was placed on his back and a few last checkups in the library were being made. All to make one hundred percent sure that all was well before he left, that he hadn’t forgotten anything.

        A deep exhale was being made through his mouth before he made the dare to walk out of the door and into the afternoon sun. All of the scents and feels rushed straight into his body where they were processed and the realization of just how mad his plan was, came to him. Though it wasn't anything that caused him to shake his head nor to turn back around.

        He was one thing that everypony had to give him credit for, that was the sheer fact that the little dragon was determined to his cause. He loved the unicorn perhaps more than anything. He would go through Tartarus and back if he had to, just to get back to her. Or to get her back.

        It was a looming thought of the dragon that she was actually dragged into the hellish pits of the underworld from crimes bigger than she could ever be. Locked away in one of the circles without any form of getting out, except him. “Hold tight Rarity, I’m finally coming to get you,” he whispered to the skies with a confident tone. The eyes were turned over to the roads ahead and began to walk.

        He hadn't even set ten steps from the locked library before that cracked voice echoed through the air which was calling his name. It was a tone and voice he knew all too well yet it still surprised him to hear it there and then. “Don’t tell me…” Spike whispered to himself before his body was being turned around and looked over into the direction of where the sounds came from.

        Within his eyes he noticed the one thing he had never expected that day to see again. For galloping on the street with a set of matching saddlebags was nopony else then the little unicorn filly. “Sweetie Belle?!” the dragon explained before the two were literally face to face. “W-What are you doing here? You know it’s far too dangerous to go there right?” Even though he had purposed the offer himself, the doubts had managed to set into his head not long after he had left the house of Rarity’s parents. Spike could have almost slapped himself in the face for even proposing it to Sweetie.

        He would have hit himself in the head there and then for his rather stupid actions, but didn’t. It wasn't something that he wanted to drag Sweetie Belle in, yet there she was. “But you said, it yourself,” the filly explained to him through her panting. At that moment he knew there wasn't any way that he could be talking himself out of there. Spike had to carry her along with the way. It took his brain a few seconds though, before he recalled the words spoken by her.

        “Didn't you said that, you and the other Crusaders, had been there before?” Spike asked her. Almost in a manner to avoid her last spoken words with a big arch. In response Sweetie nodded to confirm the questions. “Then,” the dragon spoke before he felt his heart sinking to about his toes, “consider yourself hired aboard, Sweetie. We’re going to the woods of White Tails, now.”

        The unicorn filly released a soft squee of happiness in response. The two of them began to walk into the direction of the forest. Even though he didn't want it, she could be his guide and lead them back to their original camping site. The place where the chewing feelings of the filly had been awoken in the first place. It may not have seemed like much, but anything was better than just nothing in that case. Spike felt he was finally getting somewhere after weeks of declining to search for his beloved crush.

        It was also an expedition that hopefully would be having the benefit for the two parties as Sweetie finally could know what had happened to her sister all that time ago. They were completely left in the dark when it came down to the findings of the elements of harmony and the royals. It wasn't something done on a true purpose if lying but more that they couldn't be standing still by the facts of telling them.

        They discovered so much on their own. Each news flash would become more shocking than the previous one.

        The dragon and the filly just left Ponyville behind them for what it was. They were calmly walking in the sun of the afternoon over the dirt roads. Their eyes were peeled upon the roads that were stretching themselves ahead for miles and miles. The trek was one in which Spike kind of had made a wrong decision in left and right. He knew it was a long time to actually arrive there, but he had mistaking the fact that it would be taking him that long.

        He was nearly exhausted when they reached the halfway point. The dragon lowered himself in the grass to catch up with his breath and panted a little bit. “What’s the matter, Spike?” Sweetie Belle asked when she turned around and saw him sitting there. Though the only response that she got out of him, were a few motions with his hands that he was dead and dead tired of it all. All that he needed, was just a few minutes of rest.

        A bottle of water was placed upon the lips of the dragon and a couple of deep swallows were being made. His condition being a little bit out of shape was the main thing that caused him to be that tired. The bottle was closed off again and placed back in a side pocket of the backpack before he attempted to stand up again.

        “Careful now,” said Sweetie to him. She saw him balancing on his left leg a bit before the right one was also set back upon the ground. “That was close, too close,” she then whispered to herself after a small sigh of relief. “Shall we go again?”

        “Yeah, let’s do that. We might be getting there before nine if we keep up the pace,” Spike returned with a faint smile visible below his nose. The two would have continued along the path down to the woods. Though they would be walking in nothing but actual silence. It was true that they had a few conversations left and right, but those were more of the common things. Neither of them wanted to actually know just what they would actually be finding inside of the those borders.

        It was a primal fear that was racing through their hearts, the fear of the unknown that caused them both to be on their guards as the came across the sights of the Everfree. The treeline stretched itself for miles and miles without end. Yet at the very end would the woods of White Tails actually begin. And with that, their terror and quest.


~~~~

                     
“Pearl honey, have you seen Sweetie somewhere? She seemed to have just taken off without even leaving a note for us,” said Magnum said after he had walked down the stairs of the house. The stallion then proceeded into the living room where Pearl laid comfortably upon the couch, reading through some newspapers after her emotional breakdown about her oldest daughter.

        The papers themselves were being lowered before the stallion’s eyes and she looked over the frame of her glasses. “I, I haven’t seen her actually,” she then replied to him after a couple seconds of thought. She folded the papers up again and removed the glasses from her eyes. Yet when she did that, there was something else that shot in her mind. Something that caused her to carefully hit herself upon the forehead. “Oh, how silly of me, she said she would off to the Acres. Apple Bloom invited both her and Scootaloo for a sleepover,” she said to him with a giggle.

        Magnum walked up to her as she spoke her words and nodded to them with the greatest care in the world. Every last single word was brought over to his mind before a smile formed itself with his lips. “Well that’s a good revelation to hear if you ask me,” he spoke up before he gave his wife a small kiss upon the forehead and smiled to her. “Shall I make dinner tonight?”

        “Oh, hmhmhm, if you like fine sir,” replied the mare with another giggle in her tone before their lips with one another for a soft but loving kiss.

        The day itself would have turned itself over in the evening and after a rather romantic dinner by candlelight, both of the ponies had retreated to their bedroom and laid in bed. There they simply snuggled and cuddled up against one another while stroking carefully through the mane. The setting was set to romantic and they were a little playful with one another for certain. Though in the back of their heads did they just couldn't shake away their oldest daughter.

        She always seemed to be there, lurking in the backs of their minds and in the faint hope of her finally returning to them was the thing they had hoped in for just so much. The thoughts were suppressed back into their skulls with every available force they had in their bodies. The last thing that they wanted to actually think about, was Rarity at the moment.

        In order to break the string of thoughts did their lips searched for one another before a deep and loving kiss was being exchanged by the parents. A kiss that was taking its sweet time before being broken as both of the ponies looked one another into the eyes with a lovable expression.

        “Goodnight honey pop,” Magnum whispered in one of Pearl’s ears. One last, small kiss was then returned upon her lips. Before the two would be knowing it, they both had fallen asleep and traveled down into a deep slumber. One that caused the two of them to have some rather pleasant dreams of times long gone. Of times long forgotten even.


~~~~

                     
Both the filly and the baby dragon had seen the sun going down behind the hills. They would have been walking in the light of the moon itself by that point. Hours had they been going down the path and talking the courage required to one another in order to stay tough for the deeds that were about to be done or needed to happen. While Spike was more determined on finding just what happened to his crush, Sweetie Belle on the other end seemed to be taking it all a bit more slow and careful.

        She was the one who remembered the horrors of the woods the best out of the two of them. The looks of that genuine fear inside of both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo their eyes, it wasn't something she would be joking about and with even if she wanted to be doing it. Every last bit of the trip, was calculated into her mind to degrees that she couldn't even think of herself.

        “Spike, it’s off the path here if we want to go to our place from before,” Sweetie then spoke to him. They had arrived at intersection. An intersection that the fillies had never taken the manner it was meant to be though.

        “You mean, going off if the light paths and into the darkness itself?” the dragon asked her with a genuine look of confusion. Not to mention a declaration that she was mad. Though the proof of her not being that, was given to him when the horn of the filly came to life. That emerald green colored aura around it gave of an almost harmonious rhythm to the dragon who then smiled upon it.

        “Of course not silly, we still got this. Let’s go!” Sweetie then returned to him. Just like that were they off of the path. The pair continued their trek to the original place where the Crusaders had set up their camp.

        Even with the light irradiated by Sweetie Belle’s horn, Spike still found himself frightened by something that not even he could tell what it was. Everywhere he looked, all of it just seemed to be wrong. More and more he got the feeling that they shouldn't have been there, that they should make a turn around and go back home.

        It was only one of the mental barriers that the unicorn had set up. It caused a pony to feel uncomfortable which often would get them to leave. But she had forgotten just how strong a pony was who was determined to find something within those woods. But that was where the fog came in rather handy.

        In the light of the aura did both the filly and dragon continued to walk at a general pacing towards the original camping site of the three fillies but seem to have kept themselves quite. They knew they were close to the woods as the trail of fog was already starting to build itself up. There wasn't any doubt in either of their mind actually, they were close enough to White Tails that they could actually see the fog building itself up. It would only be a matter of time before the wall would be just almost impenetrable to go through. “Look there,” Spike said all of the sudden. They had arrived to a small bay within the trees. “Could that be it?”

        They had been walking through the darkness for so long with the faint light, that their eyes had actually adapted themselves right to it. A little something that was good for the two of them, as it didn't render them completely blind. Sure they had both the lights from the horn and the moon but that didn't said a whole lot. As those lights did cast a shadow and in the shadows could all of the monsters be hiding themselves from peeking eyes.

        It even including the monsters of White Tails itself. That was just the very thing that caused both the dragon and the filly to have the shivers going down their spines. The sudden change from a warm night into a fridge was clearly felt by them. Something, if not somepony, didn't wanted to have them there. A message that had been received by the other two Crusaders.

        Sweetie Belle looked up over to the bay before she gave a small nod to the dragon. “That was it yes, even has the fireplace still. You think you can..?” she asked towards Spike with a set of curious eyes.

        “Light it on? Course I can do that,” replied Spike to her. He ran over to the place and prepared himself to shoot a flame towards it. The wood that was still piled up got ignited almost in an instant. The two sat down by the green, awakening fire. They still had to build up their tent but it was a little job that could be done in just about a minute or ten. With the light and warmth given to the both of them by the fires, they snuggled a little bit up against one. Sweetie released a soft yawn.

        She was dead tired and he knew that fact all too well. He himself wasn't even one of much energy left either. But they had to stay awake just that little bit longer to get at least their sleeping bags out of the bags they carried with them. “Hey Spike?”

        “Yes Sweetie?”

        “You think we can sleep under the starry skies tonight?” she then asked him with a voice that seemed like she was dreaming a little bit already.

        It was a question that hit him rather deep but it meant that he didn't had to do the effort to set up the tent for the two of them. “Yeah, I think we can be doing that yes,” the baby dragon replied to her with a smile. And the only thing he got in response, was a small squee from her.

        The two of them were exhausted and didn't even wanted to set another step onto any other direction. Yet they still managed to get the sleeping bags out and snuggled into them before their eyes closed themselves. They would be leaving the realm of the wake quicker than they would have expected and fell deeply asleep on their spots.

        While the flames continued to consume the woods, not a single creature dared to go near it. Everything just maintained its fair amount of distance away from the two of them. That was with the single exception of one little creature who stumbled upon them by accident.

        That very creature was in fact something that gave a true lot of trouble for the both of them. The very fact that the creature that had found them was nothing else then a cloud of shadows. A cloud of shadows that stood under the reigning command of Nightmare Rarity herself. It looked calmly over the two beings as the urge to fill their minds with fears and frights was something that came up into it.

        Though the plan itself wasn't executed for the simple fact that it wasn't its very place to be doing such a deed. What it did do however, was giving the location and the looks of the filly and baby dragon directly towards the mighty queen for further evaluation.